US firm ATC moves HC against RCom for Rs 1-bn surety over due services

American Tower Corporation has moved the Delhi High Court against Reliance Communications and its subsidiary Reliance Telecom, seeking a surety over Rs 1 billion that ATC says the two companies owe it for services provided since July to December last year, according to a report by the Economic Times.

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The ATC said RCom's responses to its demand to pay the dues were "evasive/non-committal", indicating a "malafide intent". These responses indicate ways to avoid the payment. RCom's "precarious financial position" lead the petitioner to believe that any award in favour of arbitration proceedings would remain a paper decree without any possibility to recover the money.

This is the second petition filed by ATC against RCom. The telecom tower company sought security which could be in form of bank guarantees or a deposit in court, said sources who posses knowledge about the matter. The Delhi High Court will hear the matter on 22nd February. Querries by the national daily were not responded to by ATC or RCom.

RCom's share on Wednesday closed 9 per cent higher at the Bombay Stock Exchange. last year, ATC appealed to the High Court seeking security over Rs 880 millions that it had demanded from the telecom tower company as tower payment dues.

Legal sources have said the previous petition filed by ATC has been listed for hearing on May 16. The previous petition say that dues iclude variable operating charges, security deposit, municipal charges and fees to be pai for exiting tower sites before expiry of the lock-in period.

Earlier ATC had moved Delhi High Court against Aircel to recover outstanding Rs 2.24 billion towards lease of towers. RCom avoided transfering control to banks and it has a debt of more than Rs 450 billion. Reliance Jio Infocomm agreed to purchase its tower, fibre, spectrum and media cmedia convergance nodes for an estimated Rs 240 billion.